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Understanding the Fundamentals of Music

Understanding the Fundamentals of Music

A Teaching Company Course Taught by Robert Greenberg

The Great Master


Robert M. Greenberg
It is no secret that I admire Robert Greenberg greatly as a lecturer and teacher. His complete mastery of his subject I view as a prerequisite to being a great lecturer and unquestionably Greenberg has mastered whatever he teaches and then some. What sets him apart as a teacher is his ability to communicate that material, complex though it may be, in ways that are understandable by any student willing to engage his brain (and in the case of music courses his ears) in the pursuit of the knowledge Greenberg freely passes on.

I have even been known to purchase a ticket to Ravinia, for a concert I had no interest in hearing, just to be able to attend a Greenberg lecture following in the Murray Theatre. In person he is just as impressive as he is on an edited and produced DVD with the added bonus that during the following Q&A he was patient and persevering with even most dense of audience members who seemed to be having trouble with understanding his concepts.

They just don’t come any more enjoyable than Greenberg.

The Course


Understanding the Fundamentals of Music is a somewhat technical course on music theory that covers much of what you might expect from a beginning survey course: tamber; beat, tempo, meter, pitch, mode, intervals, tunings, tonality, key signatures and the circle of fifths. The more difficult topics of motifs, melody, repetition, sequencing and metamorphosis are also dealt with in clear, straightforward fashion. But there is even more as he delves into harmony, function, tendency, dominance, progression, cadence and modulation.

Even more impressive is that he covers this broad set of topics without resorting to musical notation of any kind. He does use illustrations of a piano keyboard to describe intervals and chords, but the beginning student does not have to learn the intricacies of staves, measures, notes and so forth that probably confuse more than they enlighten until some facility is gained in reading what has become our standard western notation.

As with all of Greenberg’s courses (and the Teaching Company courses in general) there are an ample number of examples to help the learner’s ears understand just what kind of concept is being communicated. Unlike other Greenberg courses I have viewed, Greenberg plays a number of examples at the piano himself rather than resort to a recorded example. He is actually a fairly proficient pianist and besides the obligatory chord progressions we are given at appropriate lecture points he even illustrates some of his concepts with excerpts from Beethoven's less demanding sonatas that he plays himself at the piano.

Recommendation


If you like music of any kind and are willing to invest a little time and thought into developing your right brain, artistic sensibilities and musical skills, this course will provide you with a foundation that will last for the rest of your life. On this, you can continue to build your musical proficiency or just enjoy your next trip to the opera, concert hall or rock band venue all the more. It’s worth every minute you put into it.
You can find out more about Greenberg's courses at the Teaching Company Website.

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